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BLOG

Recycling Your Yard Waste

  • Megan M.
  • Tuesday, August 02, 2022
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The next step in creating a healthy landscape is to Recycle your yard waste. Recycling your yard waste keeps waste out of landfills. As a bonus, you’ll get free mulch and soil amendments.

Use appropriate bags to contribute lawn clippings to local composting efforts. Place bags outside of ditches and away from storm drains.

Create and maintain a compost pile with kitchen scraps and yard waste. No animal products please.

Create worm compost by using the digestive power of worms to recycle kitchen scraps and organic material.

Recycle grass clippings by leaving them on the lawn. 

Mow lawns to the appropriate for your specific lawn. Use higher recommended height when the lawn is under stress, such as during times of drought and very high temperature.
 

Start Composting

  • Three square feet is ideal for a pile or bin, but don’t exceed five square feet. Locate your compost at least two feet away from structures (house, shed, fence, etc.)
  • Compost needs microorganisms from the soil. If using a pile or bin open to the ground, loosen the soil about an inch before adding material. For enclosed bins, place a layer of soil at the bottom of the container.
  • Alternate layers of greens and browns, making sure the top layer is always brown. (See list of greens and browns below)
  • Moisture – compost should be as moist as a damp sponge. Too little moisture will inhibit the process, too much will make it smelly!
  • Turn your compost twice a month to inhibit odor-causing bacteria and speed the process
  • Your compost pile will get hot. This is normal and helps the materials break down faster. 
  • When your compost has no pieces of food and is a dark, soil-like material, it’s done
  • A common compost ratio is three parts brown to one-part green
compost greens and browns
Composting: Recycling Naturally – Simple Steps for Starting at Home https://scdhec.gov/sites/default/files/Library/OR-1705.pdf

 

Compost Pile No-Nos

  • Coal ash
  • Dairy products
  • Diseased or infected plants
  • Dog, at or human waste
  • Glass
  • Meat, bones, or seafood scraps
  • Metal
  • Oils, fats, grease, or lard
  • Plastic
  • Treated or painted wood
  • Trimmings toxic to other plants
  • Weeds, roots or seeds
     

Compost Problems and Solutions

compost problems and solutions
Composting: Recycling Naturally – Simple Steps for Starting at Home https://scdhec.gov/sites/default/files/Library/OR-1705.pdf

Recycling your yard waste is the one of twelve principles for creating a Carolina Yard. Click here for more steps in creating a healthy landscape: Maintaining Healthy Soil.

Easy Compost

Easy Compost

The Secret to Great Soil and Spectacular Plants
Published in 1997
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Grow Compost

Grow Compost

Essential Know-how and Expert Advice for Gardening Success
Allaway, Zia, author.
Published in 2021
Explains the advantages of composting for the garden; provides advice on how to choose or build a composting container, set it up, and make use of the compost; and suggests useful projects.
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Save the Planet

Save the Planet

Compost It
Barker, David M.
Published in 2010
Save the Planet: Compost it applies the NCTE/IRA Standards to science and social studies content. Each book sends the reader on a fact-finding mission, posing an initial challenge and concluding with questions and answers. Through engaging, interactive scenarios, learners can experiment with text prediction, purpose-driven research, and creative problem solving all critical thinking skills while learning about ways to care for our planet.
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The Secret Life of Compost

The Secret Life of Compost

A "how-to" & "why" Guide to Composting-- Lawn, Garden, Feedlot, or Farm
Beck, Malcolm, 1936-
Published in 1997
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Garbage Helps Our Garden Grow

Garbage Helps Our Garden Grow

A Compost Story.
Glaser, Linda.
Published in 2010
What is that garbage doing next to the garden? It's not garbage. It's compost! Amazing things happen inside a compost bin. In go banana peels, grass clippings, and even an old jack-o'-lantern. Out comes compost. The compost goes into the garden to make the soil rich for new plants. Compost is good for the earth. Composting also helps us make less garbage. In this book, you can watch as one family makes compost for their garden and also learn how to start your very own compost bin!
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Managing Manure

Managing Manure

How to Store, Compost, and Use Organic Livestock Wastes.
Kopecky, Mark, author.
Published in 2015
Anyone who raises livestock or keeps horses must deal with manure. This Storey BASICSʼ guide shows you how to make this process manageable, useful, and even profitable. Organic dairy farmer and soil scientist Mark Kopecky explains the fundamentals of storing, composting, and spreading manure; the nutritional content of manure from various animals; and how to handle, transport, and market manure for additional income. You'll soon discover that your farm's waste may be its biggest asset.
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Compost City

Compost City

Practical Composting Know-how for Small-space Living
Louie, Rebecca.
Published in 2015
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Mike McGrath's Book of Compost

Mike McGrath's Book of Compost

McGrath, Mike, 1956-
Published in 2006
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From Garbage to Compost

From Garbage to Compost

Owings, Lisa, author.
Published in 2017
How does a pile of garbage become compost? Follow each step in the cycle-from collecting kitchen and yard waste to creating compost for your garden-in this fascinating book!
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The Complete Compost Gardening Guide

The Complete Compost Gardening Guide

Banner Batches, Grow Heaps, Comforter Compost, and Other Amazing Techniques for Saving Time and Money, and Producing the Most Flavorful, Nutritious Vegetables Ever
Pleasant, Barbara.
Published in 2008
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Compost

Compost

A Family Guide to Making Soil from Scraps
Raskin, Ben, 1969-
Published in 2014
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How to Build, Maintain, and Use a Compost System

How to Build, Maintain, and Use a Compost System

Secrets and Techniques You Need to Know to Grow the Best Vegetables
Smith, Kelly M., 1969-
Published in 2011
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The Compost Specialist

The Compost Specialist

The Essential Guide to Creating and Using Garden Compost, and Using Potting and Seed Composts
Squire, David, 1938-
Published in 2009
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Compost

Compost

Thompson, Ken, 1954-
Published in 2007
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Author

Megan M.

Research & Readers' Advisory Professional

Likes a good mix of fiction and nonfiction, especially international fiction and books with a strong sense of place.

Tags
Gardening
Audience
Adults
 3

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